Month: January 2020

In the Journal of Marine Geology, Dr. Ivano Aiello delivers a first-author publication entitled, "Climate, sea level and tectonic controls on sediment discharge from the Sepik River, Papua New Guinea during the Mid- to Late Pleistocene". In this study, sedimentological analysis of mainly siliciclastic slope sedimentation tells the evolutionary story of a major tropical river, the Sepik River in Papau New Guinea, throughout changing climate and sea-level conditions over a period of nearly ~555 kyr. The Sepik River is currently the largest contributor of solute and particulate material to the world ocean.

Amanda Heidt, alumae of our Invertebrate Zoology lab, is currently completing a master’s degree in science communication at UC Santa Cruz. In addition, she is a contributor to Inside Science and her latest piece covers the research of long-time colleague and collaborator to MLML, Dr. Giacomo Bernardi. A recent study by Dr. Bernardi on damselfish has been published in the Journal of Molecular Ecology and documents a rare example of brood parasitism in fish (the behavior is most commonly observed in birds).

In less than a year's time, researchers from our SJSU/MLML campus have collaborated with Cal State Northridge (CSUN) scientists on the publication of two separate marine ecology studies. Both publications consider data collected from California MPA's, some of which have been monitored by research faculty member, Dr. Rick Starr and his Fisheries and Conservation lab. The Starr lab's efforts are part of a larger project through the California Collaborative Fisheries Research Program (CCFRP).

During July of last year, MLML research faculty member, Dr. Rick Starr, and his lab contributed to a new study in the Journal of Applied Ecology in collaborations with 4 other universities (CSUN as well as Oregon State, UC Davis & UC Santa Cruz). This open access paper, examines the efficacy and adaptability of MPA management by evaluating expected responses (estimated using population models) with monitoring data collected by Dr. Starr and his team (via their ongoing project with the California Collaborative Fisheries Program). The paper identified several variables, such as harvest rates prior to MPA implementation, that can determine whether a response to MPA establishment is detectable for a target species. The authors overall approach provides a a critical step of adaptive management by providing a framework for which the implementation of an MPA can be evaluated.

Becoming the first official MLML study of 2020, Dr. Scott Hamilton and former student, Stephen Pang, co-author a paper in the Journal of Ecological Applications with researchers from the University of North Carolina Wilmington. This study takes a novel approach to MPA management for a target species by considering, for the first time, how a population of generic sex-changing fish would respond to the implementation of a protected area. Their findings suggest that protogynous fishes may recover faster than species with fixed sex determination. This study has attracted media attention, including a recent article in Science Daily which interviews Dr. Hamilton about the intriguing results.

In 1987 all remaining California condors (Gymnogyps californianus) in the wild were captured and placed into captive breeding programs. Since then, these condor populations have rebounded to over 400 individuals. To cover the 2019 story of this avian comeback, Hakai Magazine reached out to our director, Dr. Jim Harvey, for what may seem like the unexpected connection between a critically endangered raptor and California's marine mammals.